Pain Entities II - Headache and Neurological

10 Units

A course based on an evaluation of prescribed reading, designed to establish the most reliable, valid, and efficacious means of assessing and treating patients with headache and neurological pain problems.

To be familiar with the causes of headache and neurological pain, how they can be diagnosed reliably and validly, and how they can most effectively be treated.

Content

Applying knowledge of pain mechanisms and critical reasoning to the assessment, diagnosis, formulation, and management, according to evidence-based practice, of patients with

Headache Radicular pain Neurogenic pain
Neuralgias CRPS

Assumed Knowledge

Undergraduate knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system.

Assessment Items

Essays / Written Assignments - Multiple choice questions addressing epidemiology, natural history, diagnosis and management of headache and neurological pain problems. Clinical practice requires explicit and immediate knowledge about pain problems. The practitioner does not have the luxury of reflecting on what might be happening in a patient, or to use a library to look up the problem. Consequently, the course is aimed at having the candidates learn, and commit to memory information that they will be called upon to use on an immediate and daily basis. For this reason MCQ constitutes an appropriate method of assessment of immediate knowledge.